Preconditions for pacts on incomes policy: Bringing structures back in

Abstract

Corporatist theory assumes a close association between centralized structures of interest intermediation and policy concertation, but recent social pacts have occurred in countries without these structures. Recent literature has focused instead on the processes involved in negotiating pacts. We bring structures back into the debate, arguing that tripartite pacts on incomes policy are systematically associated with multi-employer bargaining which is not coordinated by exposed-sector pattern-setting. This thesis is tested on time-series data for 14 West European countries from 1980 to 2003. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the future of pacts.